Josh Fischel and friends performing at “The Storyteller” in 2013. Photo by Hadrian Suciu.
For any fan of music, when you first heard The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds or Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet’s The Juliet Letters, it was an epoch in your musical development. Of the former, you have what is arguably the first conceptual album created and what inspired The Beatles to create their famed Sgt. Pepper… album. Of the latter, a rock opera-ish ode to Shakespeare’s Juliet Capulet, all recorded live in the studio without a single overdub.
This is why RIOTstage—the Josh Fischel-created, ever-changing conglomeration of Long Beach musicians that take music and turn it into theatre—have decided to take on the massive endeavor that is recreating these two albums that are essential to the annals of music history. Or, in the words of Fischel, they’re going all out.
Part birthday celebration for John Molina and part inauguration for the music group’s new series, Classic Album Double Bill, RIOTstage will bringing on two different groups of musicians to play each album.
Confirmed so far: Mr. Crumb, Vince Gutierrez, Jon Zell, Jon Swain, Adam Marsland, Joshua Fischel, Mona Tian, Emily Call, Melinda Rice, Judy Cellist Kang, Patrick O’Konski, Sumner LeVeque, Greggory Moore, Matthew Proffitt, Kris Jackson, and Alanah Ntzouras.
Oh, and let’s not forget the shadow puppets courtesy of Jack Pullman Creations for the Home and Stage and the art show curated by Jonelle Thais Holden and Jami Ray Jorgensen.
“It’s going to be a pretty amazing and immensely eclectic night of entertainment,” Fischel said. “The Juliet Letters is a musical piece for one vocalist and a string quartet and the style of music lives somewhere between classical and rock but it isn’t really either of those things. We’re also doing it with a theatrical flair as it’s not really a concert; it’s more a one man show told through music.”
The concept? Continuing Costello’s ode to the quintessential Shakespearean tragedy, Fischel poses to audience members a very amusing situation: what if Romeo’s poison wasn’t lethal?
“What if he woke to find her dead by her own hand?” Fischel proposed. “What if he couldn’t bring himself to suicide? What kind of man would he become?”
Fischel will be taking on the (honor of playing?) middle-aged version of Romeo—something he is unquestionably excited about. Not to mention that the “the strings quartet sounds damn beautiful.”
As for Pet Sounds, expect nothing short of a straight-up, no-apology concert with 12 musicians and singers that have been working tirelessly to sound perfect.
“People are going to blown away.”
Classic Album Double Bill will take place on November 7 and 8 at MADhaus, located at 624 Pacific Ave. Tickets are $30. To RSVP, click here.
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